THE BOOK

Copy of George

Copy of Mary Ann

Copy of Clara

Copy of Emily

Copy of George Augustus

Although spanning a wide network of friends and family, ancestors and descendants, inlaws and outlaws, artists and artisans, the heart of "All My Darlings" is the nuclear unit of George and Mary Ann Macirone. This is a brief introduction to the family.

The above picture of George was taken around 1855 and is the only one that survives. Adored by his wife and children, he was both traditional patriarch and radical eccentric. Indeed, if he didn’t mould the others in his image, their life choices were inevitably fashioned in response to his struggles. A brilliant, restless, troubled polymath, his character may be triangulated from the poles of his profound love for his family and the illness with which he struggled his entire adult life.

The picture of Mary Ann in later life was painted by the talented Emily. Like many Victorian women, Mary Ann was defined by her marriage. However, this should take away nothing from her sharp intellect, nor the considerable business acumen she necessarily displayed at the height of her husband’s problems. She was both deeply religious and possessed of a profound social conscience – qualities she passed on to all her children.

Another of Emily’s portraits shows elder daughter Clara as a student at the Royal Academy of Music. At a time when professional opportunities for women were severely limited, Clara nonetheless became the Macirones’ main breadwinner, a truly gifted musician whose work and reputation survives to this day. Perhaps her greatest legacy, however, was the family itself. Without the diligence and ingenuity she displayed at considerable and heartbreaking personal cost, they would surely have faced bankruptcy.

This portrait of Emily at the age of 21 by a fellow artist by the name of Maddox is the only picture that remains. Six years younger than Clara, Emily was a capable painter and, if she never received quite the recognition or reward of her sister, she was at times in demand as a portraitist. Bright, warm and attractive, Emily was the family’s most enthusiastic correspondent and her letters are unfailingly funny and engaging.

Seven years younger than Emily, 13 than Clara, George Augustus was very much the baby of the family and, in a male-dominated society, it was his welfare and prospects that preoccupied his sisters. Another of Emily's pictures shows him in his uniform for Christ’s Hospital, the Bluecoat School. A likeable boy, ever eager to please, he grew into a pious, somewhat earnest man, touched by tragedy, whose specific religious convictions would come to challenge the family equilibrium.

“All My Darlings” is an absorbing, intimate, touching portrait of a Victorian family. Buy it now, or find out more about the people and the period in the extensive archive.

“All My Darlings” is published in hardback by Troubador and available from Amazon, or directly from Troubador.